Chapter 23
BALDER TELLS AN UNTRUTH. By way of enheartening himself for what he was to do, Balder kissed the posy of Gnulemah's fragrant footsteps. He kept his eyes down, lest she should see something in them to distract her attention from his story. He must go artfully to work,--gain her assent to the abstract principles before marshalling them against himself. Meanwhile Gnulemah had picked up a gold beetle, and was examining it with a certain grave interest. "I never told you how I came by this ring of Hiero's. It was the night before I first saw you, Gnulemah." "The ring guided you to me!" said she, glancing at his downcast visage. "Perhaps it did!" he muttered, struck by the ingenious superstition; and he eyed the keen diamond half suspiciously. How fiercely the little serpents were
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